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Six nights through Goa's kitchens, Catholic and Hindu. Markets in Panjim, Mapusa and Margao, a cashew feni distillery in the hills, a spice plantation lunch, a cooking session in a Salcete home and dinners at the best tables in Assagao. Stays at Cidade de Goa, W Goa and Alila Diwa.
Goan food is two cuisines living side by side. Catholic Goa cooks pork vindaloo, sorpotel, chouriço and cafreal with toddy vinegar and Portuguese technique; Hindu Goa cooks fish curry with kokum and coconut, khatkhate and sol kadi, and sweets of jaggery and rice. Both share a love of the sea's catch and of feni, the spirit distilled from cashew apples or coconut toddy.
This journey eats its way from Panjim through north Goa to Salcete, with markets in the mornings, a working feni distillery, a spice farm, a cooking session in a family home and dinners at restaurants we choose for their Goan cooking. Feni is distilled from about March to May, when the cashew apples ripen; in other months, the distillery visit shows the equipment and tastings.
Highlights
Day by day
Your driver meets you at Dabolim and drives to Cidade de Goa at Vainguinim, near Panjim. After a rest, your food guide joins you in the early evening for a walk through Fontainhas, stopping at a tavern for a glass of feni and Goan bar snacks such as chouriço chilli fry and prawn rissóis, then dinner at a Goan restaurant in the old quarter.
At 7.30 am, walk Panjim's municipal market with your food guide: kingfish and mackerel in the fish hall, poee and kankonn at the bread stalls, and chouriço, kokum and toddy vinegar. Breakfast on bhaji pao. Then drive an hour to a spice plantation near Ponda for a walk among pepper, cardamom and nutmeg, and a Hindu Goan vegetarian lunch on banana leaf, with khatkhate and sol kadi. Return for a rest.
Drive north into the hills behind the coast to a family feni distillery, where cashew apples are crushed and the juice distilled in copper or clay pots over wood fires. In season, from about March to May, you see it working; at other times, the distiller explains the process and offers a tasting of urrak and feni. Continue to W Goa at Vagator for the afternoon, and dinner at a modern Goan restaurant in Assagao.
If it is a Friday, walk Mapusa's weekly market with your guide: strings of chouriço, piles of red chillies, recheado masala, local pickles and earthenware curry pots. On other days, visit the market building and a traditional bakery in Saligao. Lunch is at a long-established Goan restaurant in Bardez. In the evening, a tasting dinner at one of Assagao's best kitchens, booked weeks ahead.
Drive south to Margao, the market town of Salcete, and walk its covered market for dried fish, cashews, dodol and perad. Then join a Goan Catholic family in their home nearby for a hands-on cooking session: a fish curry with kokum, chicken cafreal, a vindaloo or sorpotel, and sannas, the steamed rice cakes leavened with toddy. Lunch is what you cook. Check in at Alila Diwa in the afternoon.
At dawn, watch the boats come in at Benaulim and see the morning catch sold on the sand. After breakfast, visit a home bakery that makes bebinca, the layered coconut and egg-yolk cake baked one layer at a time, and take one away. The afternoon is for the pool overlooking the paddy. A farewell seafood dinner is at a beach restaurant in Majorda or Benaulim.
A last breakfast, then your driver takes you to Dabolim, only 20 minutes from Majorda. Your purchases of chouriço, spice pastes, cashews and feni can be packed for the flight. Note that feni and other spirits must follow airline rules for liquids in hold luggage.
Included
Not included
Where you sleep
A beach resort on Vainguinim cove near Dona Paula, designed by the architect Charles Correa as a stylised Goan village of lanes, courtyards and painted walls. …
A lively design resort on the rocks above Vagator beach, below the walls of Chapora Fort. Bright interiors, a beach bar and DJ evenings make it …
A contemporary resort at Majorda, a few minutes inland from the beach, built around an infinity pool that looks over paddy fields. It is at its …
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Questions travellers ask
Feni is Goa's traditional spirit, distilled either from the fermented juice of cashew apples or from coconut toddy. Cashew feni is distilled in the hills in spring; urrak is the lighter first distillate. It has heritage protection as a Goan product.
Cashew feni is made from about March to May, when the cashew apples ripen and fall. Coconut feni can be made year-round from toddy. To see the stills working, travel in spring; check current status before you travel.
Yes. Goan Hindu cooking is largely vegetarian, and we can adapt the cooking session, restaurant meals and market tastings. Tell us in advance and we will brief every host and restaurant.
Not at all. The distillery visit is interesting for the process and the setting alone, and non-drinkers can taste kokum sherbet, fresh cashew apple juice or sol kadi instead.
Catholic Goan cooking uses pork, beef, toddy vinegar and Portuguese techniques in dishes such as vindaloo, sorpotel and cafreal. Hindu Goan cooking is more often vegetarian or fish-based, with coconut, kokum and jaggery, in dishes like khatkhate and fish curry.
Yes. On day 5, a Salcete family hosts you for a hands-on cooking session and lunch. It is one of the most enjoyable parts of the trip, and recipes are shared to take home.
We choose a mix of long-established Goan restaurants in Panjim and Bardez and modern kitchens in Assagao, changing the list each season based on our own visits. We book weeks ahead in peak season.
Dry spice mixes, cashews, kokum, dodol and vacuum-packed chouriço generally travel well. Fresh fish does not. Check the import rules of your home country for meat products and spirits before you buy.
Some dishes, such as vindaloo and recheado, are spicy, but many are mild, including caldinho, fish curry with coconut and cafreal. Hosts and restaurants will adjust the heat if you ask.
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